Expanding Windows Azure Capacity – Brazil

Earlier today during an event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I announced our plans to open a Windows Azure Region in Brazil. We expect the region to come online in early 2014 and are delighted to announce that we will begin to on-board preview customers in the next 4 to 6 weeks. This announcement represents our first major expansion into South America, building on our previously announced expansions into Japan, Australia, and China through our partner 21Vianet.

With the opening of this region, new and existing customers in Brazil -- including those that have been with us since our country launch back in the spring of 2010-- will experience better performance through reduced latency and will have the ability to keep their data in the country. As the rules and regulations on data management continue to evolve in Brazil, customers using the Brazil Region will be able to opt for Locally Redundant Storage (LRS), which will maintain three copies of their data and will not replicate their data outside of the country. Geo Redundant Storage (GRS) remains the default option when creating a storage account because it provides our highest level of durability by storing data in a second region, in this case our US South Central region for customers using the Brazil Region as their primary.

It’s an exciting time to be expanding into Brazil, and today’s announcement represents our continued commitment to growing the global presence of Windows Azure and to our Brazilian customers like Boa Vista Serviços, Globosat, and Linx that rely on Windows Azure to run their businesses.